Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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Getting ready. That’s what Advent is about. At church we lit the first candle of Advent Sunday morning, and, as I write on this Sunday evening, I’m sitting in a quiet house, enfolded by the warm glow of the light from our Christmas tree. I didn’t grow up observing Advent or, for that matter, any of the other seasons of the “Christian calendar.” I was unaware that there was such a thing, and in our non- or anti-denomination denomination, there most certainly was not. I was blessed by “our” folks and still love them, but our bunch back then wasn...
In a recent column, I mentioned that among the highest points of a recent trip to Carolina, was a visit (two visits, actually) my wife and I made to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. As I said in that column, I don't usually toss around the word "inspirational," but the Billy Graham Library deserves that adjective. Designed to reflect his upbringing on a dairy farm in North Carolina, the library, grounds and all, wonderfully honors Billy Graham by honoring most of all the Lord he has served so long and well. I was particularly surprised to...
Maybe it's just me, and perhaps a few of the other old fossils, the English majors, the "arts and humanities" types that our society keeps around as pitiful and withered relics of a bygone time when folks cared as much about the "why's" of life as the "how's," when asking questions about the direction of our journey in life seemed as important as knowing how to travel aimlessly but really quickly and with cool gadgets, when having warm hearts seemed as important as having swelled heads crammed full of information but with little room for...
I was thinking recently about a long-ago wedding — the one Jesus attended at Cana of Galilee, the same one in which he became the winemaker for the feast. And that reminded me of another wedding or two. I'm told that when my maternal grandparents decided to get married, they hitched a horse to the buckboard and rattled down the road one evening to the preacher's house. He came out with his Bible, stood beside the wagon, said a few traditional words, and asked the important questions. They each responded, "I do," and . . . they were. Married, t...
Setting up housekeeping is no easy task. But the task on the other end of the journey is harder. Ask anyone who has buried their last parent or whose parents have had to move into a care facility. Sifting through three-quarters of a century's worth of accumulated mounds of paper, pictures, trinkets, and family treasures is a daunting task. But it can be interesting. It can bring laughter. And tears. And it certainly can make you think. Such an undertaking takes much of its character and color from the character and lives of the folks who've...